Asylum Seekers / Refugees

Around 300 refugees in Glasgow could be made homeless from today when a private company begins a programme of changing locks to emergency accommodation. Serco will issue a first six ‘lock change’ notices today at refugee accommodation housing asylum seeker families and lone men and women, many o

A night shelter for asylum seekers or refugees could open in Glasgow if plans are approved by the city council. Glasgow Night Shelter has submitted a planning application for the new facility on the corner of Fairley Street and Carmichael Street.

A new strategy has been developed with the help of more than 700 asylum seekers and refugees to help them settle into communities across Scotland. The main aims on the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy, which has been endorsed by the United Nations Refugee Agency, are to provide education, hous

Scotland’s local authorities have been praised for their work to provide a safe home for refugee families as the country marked the arrival of the 2000th refugee through the Syrian Resettlement Programme, three years ahead of schedule. Supported by COSLA, Scottish councils have met their goal to r

A Church of Scotland minister has called for two new towns to be built in the Highlands that will house refugees. The Rev Dr Rory MacLeod said that two new settlements in the Highlands taking 100,000 refugees each would help tackle the region’s depopulation problems.

An Edinburgh project that provides English language lessons to Syrian refugees More than a quarter of all Syrian refugees who have arrived in the UK in the past two years have settled north of the Border.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon First Minister Nicola Sturgeon outlined the SNP’s key policies yesterday as the party leader revealed its manifesto for the upcoming general election.

Positive Action in Housing has welcomed a Holyrood committee’s report which found insecure immigration status to be a key aggravating factor leading to destitution. The equality and human rights committee’s report recognised the huge challenges facing people seeking safety in Scotland, stating t

MSPs are calling for a national strategy to alleviate the situation of hundreds of people with insecure immigration status in Scotland from becoming destitute. Destitution is defined as not having adequate accommodation, or a way of finding it, or being unable to meet essential living needs. The sit

Dee Flanigan Govan Law Centre (GLC) is to launch a Glasgow Asylum Seekers Project with a particular focus on housing, health and the living conditions of asylum seekers and their families and children in the city.

Glasgow is home to more asylum seekers than any other local authority area in the UK, research has found. More than 3,300 were living in the city as of December 31, 2016, according to the most recent Home Office figures available - almost double the number in Liverpool or Manchester, where the next

A new report from the British Red Cross has exposed how refused asylum seekers are trapped in a life of destitution in Scotland. The number of destitute refugees and asylum seekers helped by the charity in Glasgow increased from 326 in 2014 to 820 in 2016.

Yvette Cooper The state of some asylum accommodation provided by Home Office contractors throughout the UK has been branded “disgraceful” by MPs.

Ways in which Scottish public services can help asylum seekers facing destitution are to be investigated by MSPs on Holyrood’s equalities and human rights committee. A person is legally defined as destitute if (a) they do not have adequate accommodation or any means of obtaining it (whether or not

Housing associations and co-operatives across Scotland have shown an overwhelming act of solidarity and humanity as they pledge up to 350 homes for vulnerable families being relocated to the UK as part of the Vulnerable Person Relocation (VPR) scheme run by the UK government. A cross-sector response